Among the 40 Bills in the King’s speech, a significant number will directly impact our sector, including the new government’s ambitions for a big shake-up of training and apprenticeships.

I’m hopeful that plans for Skills England, a new body that aims to produce a highly trained workforce by, “bringing together businesses, providers, unions, mayoral combined authorities and national government” will create a sea change in training for Energy Assessors. It’s going to work with quangos as well as industry to create an accurate picture of current and future skills needs, and to ensure training programmes are well designed and delivered. It’s music to my ears, but we need to grasp this opportunity to ensure the new body addresses the widening skills gap in our sector – exacerbated by patchy NDEA training provision – and the need for alternative approaches such as apprenticeships. This will be increasingly important as the government has also pledged to get tougher on private landlords and to boost housebuilding – both of which will necessitate training more Energy Assessors and skilled tradespeople.

Its plan is to get Britain Building through planning reform, delivering 1.5 million new homes this parliament in England, partly by giving locals less of a voice when protesting applications, and means scores of new properties will need EPCs. And let’s not forget that if the Future Homes Standard consultation gets the go-ahead, from 2025, all of them will have to ensure they produce 75-80% less carbon emissions than homes built under the current Building Regulations.

Stricter planning rules are also imminent to create climate-resilient new homes under the government’s Warm Homes Plan which has the ambitious goal of making five million properties more energy efficient. Grants and loans will be dished out by councils to pay for insulation, solar panels, batteries and heat pumps, which is great news for suppliers and fitters – if they can keep up with demand.

If that’s not all, as part of a housing crackdown, the Decent Homes Standard, which currently only applies to social housing, will also cover the private rented sector so landlords will need to keep a closer check on hazards or face tough penalties. Awaab’s Law will set out clear legal expectations about timeframes to deal with damp, condensation and mould, meaning that many more landlords will need robust data and good advice.

Labour also said in its manifesto that it wants all private residential rented properties to meet a minimum EPC rating by 2030. Although there’s no detail on what this entails, it will probably be an EPC band C, and full details are imminent, hopefully, along with deadlines for the commercial/non-domestic sector.

And let’s not forget the government plan to set up Great British Energy, designed to promote green energy projects as part of its desire to achieve 100% clean power by 2030 – no mean feat – as well as a new National Wealth Fund Bill that will invest £7.3 billion over five years in infrastructure and green industry, and create thousands of jobs.

All these initiatives are welcome and important but will inevitably put extra pressure on our sector, with more demand for the services of Energy Assessors, heat pump and Solar PV fitters. I hope the government really listens to industry concerns, particularly around the need for a properly skilled workforce equipped to deliver on these ambitions. I certainly plan to engage with any consultations to ensure our sector can help shape these policies so that everyone benefits.